I am seriously considering purchasing a sigma 50-500 mm telephoto lense for my olympus E500 camera , much,much cheaper than the olympus version.Does anyone have experience of using such a lense for birding, bearing in mind the fairly heavy weight and the fact of not being able to use a tripod for most shots.Would appreciate some opinions as the lense is still quite pricey at £750 and I dont want to buy unsuitable gear.
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50-500 zoom lens (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter jontrus
- Start date
jontrus said:
Hi,
I used to use this lens on my Nikon D70 and found it a fantastic lens. It has a max aperture of f6.3 at 500mm and I was told it performed better stopped down to f8 / f11, but obviously the shutter speed drops then.
When using it in Lesvos last year I was able to hand-hold occasionally but the light was fantastic every day there, unlike the UK !!!
I know 2nd hand Canon / Nikon ones go for about £450, but Olympus ones are probably rarer.
paul goode
Well-known member
jontrus said:
hi,
I used this lens until the middle of last year and rated it very highly. However I virtually always used it on a beanbag or tripod, only handholding it for flightshots.
With the cropfactor of the olympus, I think you are looking at an equivalent 100-1000mm lens, and not many people would expect much success from handholding a 100mm lens!
I would say, yes its a good lens but it'll need supporting.
Paul
paul goode
Well-known member
rezMole said:
It would be well worth considering if it was available with an Olympus mount....
Its a shame that the lens choice for the 4/3 mount is a bit limited at the moment because that 2x crop factor is very tempting for bird photography. £750 for a 1000mm lens, not a bad deal.
I think that the 50-500 would be fine for aviation shots, sure I saw somewhere that its the most common lens on flightlines in the states. Never tried with mine because I use a 70-200 at places like Duxford. On panned shots the extra weight I don't think is a problem and for aviation shots you'll be using the shorter end of the lens and so it will be fairly compact. Handholding becomes a problem with static objects.
Paul
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